It is becoming more and more common to use various kinds of special non-contact equipment for controlling the local temperature of various items in order to find out the status of the item. It is for instance well known to look for heat leaks by means of non-contact infrared equipment in order to be able to perform the control at a certain distance from the object. Also, spot pyrometers (non-contact thermometers) are used in a number of applications like food safety, car manufacturing and repair, inspection of aircraft, etc. When using a spot pyrometer, however, the operator is running the risk of missing the desired target or the critical hot spot since he has no other way to perform the control than by manually scanning the object by pointing his spot pyrometer in different directions in an effort to find the actual hot spot. This is sometimes a cumbersome and time-consuming procedure and is not an efficient way to find the actual hot spot. There is thus a risk that the use of a spot pyrometer might not produce a safe result.
The use of an infrared camera allows a safer detection of hot spots. A problem is, however, that normal IR-cameras are rather heavy optical instruments that require careful and gentle handling by two hands. They are often designed like a normal video camera with a normal view finder or an LCD display on a rotating joint. Such equipment is rather fragile and is not well suited for use in harsh environments where service technicians often have to perform their duties.
In many applications a service technician would need an IR-camera, that is easy to handle and that is easy to use in awkward positions. It is also often desirable to have rugged equipment that can stand fairly rough treatment and is easy to bring along in different situations.